India’s ambitious objective of reaching the US$1 trillion digital economy must be carefully nurtured with a strong foundation of trust, confidence and cyber security. Given the frequency and viciousness of cyber-attacks, digital has become the new playground for criminal activity. In the first three months of 2022 alone, India witnessed 18 million cyberattacks and threats, with an average of 200,000 attacks every day.
Betting on digital as a growth lever, the Government has announced a slew of initiatives in the Union Budget 2022 including the introduction of digital currency and 75 Digital Banking Units (DBU) by scheduled commercial banks. This is being facilitated by a number of government-backed initiatives including the nationwide fibre network initiative under BharatNet to deliver high connectivity in the remotest corners of the country.
But what adds a layer of complexity to India’s digital story is that the boom will be brought to fruition by the smartphone users as a large number of Indians are having their first digital encounters with the smartphone. According to a study by Deloitte, India will have 1 billion smartphone users by 2026 with rural areas driving the sale of Internet-enabled phones.
It is heartening to note that Indian users have demonstrated savviness in exploiting the advantages offered by high-speed connectivity. India has recorded the highest growth in mobile broadband data usage last year with 4G mobile data growing by 31% in 2021 and the average monthly data usage per individual growing by 26.6% year on year, according to Nokia’s Mobile Broadband Index Report 2022. The total mobile broadband subscriber base increased from 345 million to 765 million over the last five years and the launch of 5G will play a major role in achieving the US$1-trillion digital economy dream. This clearly establishes that mobile phones will play a crucial role in India’s digital story.
Yet the threat of cyber security looms large with an exponential increase in hacking incidents of mobile phones. Market reports indicate that mobile phones in India experiences amongst the highest malware attacks globally and that security incidents increased between October 2020 and March 2021, coinciding with the increased adoption of mobile payment by Indians during the pandemic.
Today, more than eight in ten Indians living in urban areas are using a banking app, according to Forrester Research. This portends serious implications not just for users but for businesses and the country at large given the seamless connectivity digital entails, the entire banking sector can come to a grinding halt with an organized and well-orchestrated malware attack.
The mobile is increasingly becoming the microcosm of people’s existence and more users are using the mobile phone for work purposes and to accomplish more personal tasks. Ensuring robust mobile security has become a tearing imperative but unfortunately, securing the mobile phone is easier said than done as people do not adopt good security hygiene such as installing anti-virus, timely updating and patching OS and other apps on the mobile.
Banking apps can ensure secure transactions by having runtime security controls that monitor and provide real-time security on customer’s device. Banking apps must also have in-built real time dashboard of threat vectors; robust device policy enforcements and network controls with zero-trust validation and equipped with advanced capabilities such as device binding to thwart social engineering attempts to compromise banking apps and customer identity.
The India digital story can get derailed with cyber security attacks and the highest authorities including Prime Minister Modi has acknowledged it and urged the country to integrate security in the digital framework. And that framework must embrace mobile devices which are the weakest links in the digital chain.